259 
doctrine : there is not a trace of it in Scripture. The contrary 
doctrine is taught here. Create is a term used three times 
in the Mosaic cosmogony, as given in the first chapter of 
Genesis: — 1. For the origin of all things. 2. For the great 
whales and the moving things of the waters. 3. For man. 
If we examine the usus loquendi of the word, we arrive at the 
following conclusions : — 
1 . In the simple form of the word it is never applied to the 
work of man or of any creature. 
2. Never to God's work in process. 
3. Only to God's work in a complete state. 
Hence to create heaven and earth is a Divine work giving 
perfect existence to heaven and earth. Whether God's work 
was instantaneous or progressive, the word create was ap- 
plied to it only when complete, and not before. Thus it is said 
“ Male and female created He them." That work was pro- 
gressive. God took dust and formed it into a human body : 
He then breathed into that body the breath of life. A man 
was thus formed : after that a woman was made out of the 
man. The man was said to be formed, the woman to be 
builded : but when completed, and only then, it is said “ Male 
and female created He them." 
The land animals are not said to have been created, and yet 
the aquatic ones are. The reason appears to me to be that 
the aquatic animals are perfect in their kind, but the land 
animals are not : man is their perfection and head. 
Another usage of the word is in the Piail or intensive form, 
in which it is employed for destruction. The corresponding’ 
Sanscrit word has the same application, on the ground that only 
he who has the power to create has power to destroy : He 
can create, and he destroy." In this, or an analogous sense, 
the word is three times found in Scripture. In the Hiphil, or 
causative sense and form, the word is once used, and only once. 
It is rightly rendered to make fat, 1 Sam. xx. 29 ; and so, 
as an adjective, we have ( beree ) fatness. Now if 
(bard), to create, is never elsewhere used for any creature 
work, nor for giving existence in a chaotic state, nor for any 
work in process, but only for God’s work when completed, 
surely the usus loquendi requires us to believe that it is 
similarly used here. We thus, on the strictest principles of 
philological investigation, arrive at the conclusion that the 
Mosaic statement is : 
1 . That all things had a beginning. 
2. That their existence was the work of God. 
3. That they received not a chaotic but a completed exist- 
ence from Him. 
